Description

A twinkling consciousness became a star that sparkled in the night and banished the darkness. The Mana Goddess acquired consciousness by gazing into the light of that sun. She made Fa'Diel, a great land, but so far an empty one.

In Legend of Mana the player controls a hero or heroine traveling over the land of Fa'Diel. The game features a land creation system, allowing the player to create new locations and story elements by placing mysterious artifacts. Those ancient artifacts are repositories of the land's long-forgotten memories and the many events that once took place there. As the game advances, the player will receive more artifacts and find out more about the land. It is also possible raise pet monsters and create powerful golems, forge mighty weapons or refine musical instruments.

The game is non-linear in terms of gameplay, allowing the player to visit areas in any order and play through 67 related scenarios. There is, however, no continuous world to explore, and each scenario is confined to a particular area. Like in the previous games in the series, combat is action-based, but in this installment it takes place on separate side-scrolling screens. AI-controlled characters can fight alongside the protagonist in some of the scenarios.

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Trivia

Soundtrack

The intro song for the game is sung in Swedish by Annika Ljungberg, who was the first female lead singer of the country-inspired dance act Rednex (who made it big in the 90's with the song Cotton Eye Joe). In interviews around the time of the game's release it was mentioned that she was picked for the part because of the "mystical" feel of Swedish vocals would work well in the fantasy setting of the game.

Ironically, the game itself was never released in Sweden (or Europe for that matter).